Monday, November 10, 2008

#26. See Metallica Live

I saw Metallica live for the 8th time last night. In honor of this historic event, I present:

A Metallica Retrospective

Load Tour: April 15 1997

met1997

This concert blew me away. I was 16 and had seen AC/DC in 1996 (my first real concert) but nothing had prepared me for my first Metallica show. The Boys in Black had put a lot of money into the stage theatrics and it showed. At one point, the entire friggin stage started blowing apart. Roadies fell from the ceiling. On fire. It was awesome.

After the carnage, James came out and pulled the string on a solitary lightbulb (all that remained after the destruction). "IS EVERYBODY OK?!??" he roared with a grin. "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" we responded, as they came back out and rocked in a "Garage Inc" days stage.

To this day I don't think I've been to concert that was better. I also love how the Ticket Stub says Riverfront Colosseum instead of US Bank Arena.

Set List:
Intro
So What!
Creeping Death
Sad But True
Ain't My Bitch
Hero of the Day
King Nothing
One
Wasting My Hate
Bass / Guitar Solo
Nothing Else Matters
Until it Sleeps
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Wherever I May Roam
Fade to Black
Seek & Destroy / Fight Fire With Fire
Last Caress
Master of Puppets
Enter Sandman
Am I Evil?
Motorbreath

IMG_0595

IMG_0600
I have no idea why the date for the Cincy show is wrong on the T-shirt.

scan0001

scan0002

Re-Load Tour: July 7 1998

met1998

At the time I didn't know how lucky I was to be seeing them again so soon after the '97 show. I loved the Ecstasy of Gold intro video they had. It was pretty much this clip from The Good The Bad and The Ugly:



For some reason Tuco running through the graveyard was a badass way to start the show. I'm pretty sure I gave myself whiplash during Master of Puppets. The acoustic set in the middle was pretty cool too, and hearing Metallica play Sweet Home Alabama was surreal (and is probably why I insist on yelling Play Some Skynyrd! at every concert I attend)

Setlist
Ecstasy of Gold
Helpless
Master of Puppets
Of Wolf And Man
The Thing That Should Not Be
Kirk solo
Where the Wild Things Are jam
Fuel
Memory Remains
Jason solo
Bleeding Me
Nothing Else Matters
Until it Sleeps
King Nothing
Wherever I May Roam
One
Fight Fire With Fire
Low Manґs Lyric (acoustic)
The Four Horsemen (acoustic)
Sweet Home Alabama jam (acoustic)
Motorbreath (acoustic)
Sad But True
Enter Sandman
Creeping Death

IMG_0597

IMG_0599

scan0003

Summer Sanitarium 2000: July 8 2000

This show was at the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. A good friend of mine's father owned a luxury box at the speedway so we had the red carpet treatment all day. We took a limo to the show and had access to the luxury box all day. Seeing the crowds down on the field moshing to Korn from the luxury box was awesome. It was a sea of people jumping up and down in rhythm. Craziness!

This was the show that James missed because he was in the hospital due to a jet ski accident. I was pretty disappointed at the time, but I can honestly say I'm one of the few people in the world who have seen Kid Rock front Metallica for a Rolling Stones cover or Jonathon Davis fronting Metallica singing One. I think the bands pulled together well and put on a helluva once in a lifetime show. No ticket stub for this one because we had to turn those in to get our tickets for the make up show.

Set List
Creeping Death (Jason vox, Kenny guitar)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Jason vox, Kenny guitar)
Seek & Destroy (Jason vox, Kenny guitar)
Mastertarium (w/Jason and then Serje on vox and Darren on guitar)
One (Jonathon Davis on vocals, SOAD on guitar)
Korn - Blind (w/Larz and Kirk)
Korn - Clown
Korn - Earache my Eye (w/Jason)
Korn - South of Heaven jam (w/Jason)
Sad But True/American Badass - (Kid Rock on vox)
Nothing Else Matters (Kid Rock on vox, Head on bass)
Kid Rock - Fortuante Son (w/Kid Rock and Jason vox)
Kid Rock - Jumpin' Jack Flash (w/Kid Rock vox)
Fuel (Jason vox, Kid Rock on turntables)
Turn the Page (Kid Rock vocals)
Whiplash (w/Kid Rock's guitarist)
Enter Sandman (w/Kid rock on backing vox, Head bass)

IMG_0601

IMG_0602

Back Again: August 8 2000

met2000

I love this ticket stub. "Special Guest: James Hetfield". Hilarious! Seeing the boys rock out Rupp was awesome. One clear memory I have of this show is how the opening band used numbers for the names of all their songs, and all their songs were instrumental. "This one is called #31!" Very catchy....

Set List
Ecstasy of Gold
Creeping Death
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Seek & Destroy
Fade to Black
Sad But True
Fuel
No Leaf Clover
King Nothing
Mastertarium
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
I Disappear
One
Turn the Page
Enter Sandman
Last Caress / So What! / Die Die My Darling

Summer Sanitarium 2003: July 19 2003

met2003

I loved the start of this show. Battery and then straight into Master of Puppets. Can't get much better than that. This was a show of many firsts. It was the first time I got to hear Harvester of Sorrow Live. This was the first time my (future) wife and I saw Metallica together (even though she also attended the Speedway and Rupp makeup shows). And finally, this was the first concert I attended where I didn't buy a t-shirt. At $30 they were too much for me (and I've never bought another). This concert marked my last mosh pit as well, as I took an elbow to the throat during Linkin Park's set. My voice disappeared as the day went on and I couldn't talk for a week (which amused my friends to no end). Lowlights of the day included Fred Durst and the Buckeye idiots yelling OH-IO between sets.

Battery
Master of Puppets
Harvester of Sorrow
Sanitarium
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Frantic
Sad But True
St. Anger
No Remorse
Seek & Destroy
Blackened
Fuel
Nothing Else Matters
Creeping Death
One
Enter Sandman

St. Anger Tour: May 1 2004

met2004

Whew... the 4 year drought ends. We had to sit in the bleachers for this show, since this was before Cincinnati reversed the ban on festival seating. A few things stick out to me about this show, including one of my wife's friends sitting down at the concert. For shame! Also, I managed to score my first Metallica guitar pick despite being 8 rows up in the stands. I saw one lying on the floor and convinced a bored security guard to hand it to me. During this show we also discovered that Sober James was quite the chatty Kathy. This was also the first show I went to where the band offered a download of the concert from LiveMetallica.com The crowd singing the entire first verse of Sad But True is awesome.

Set List
Blackened
Fuel
Seek and Destroy
Kirk Doodle #1
Fade to Black
Frantic
King Nothing
No Leaf Clover
St. Anger
Sad But True
Creeping Death
Battery
I Disappear
Kirk Doodle #2
Nothing Else Matters
Master Of Puppets
One
Enter Sandman
Am I Evil?
Metal Militia

St Anger Tour: September 24 2004

met2004-2

Ah, the second visit during the St. Anger Tour. After this show my wife and I decided that the next time Metallica toured we'd go see em three times (little did we know that by the time that happened in 2008 we'd have just bought a house and have no money for that). This show was in Columbus so this time we were on the floor. It was probably the closest I had ever been to the stage at a Metallica show. The stage was set in the middle and fans could stand at the rail all the way around the stage. Once again I managed to score a guitar pick (different from the one I got at the Cincy show). Hearing Hit the Lights live for the first time was cool.

Set List
Blackened
Fuel
No Leaf Clover
Creeping Death
Frantic
Wherever I May Roam
Turn the Page
St. Anger
Kirk Doodle #1
Fade to Black
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
I Disappear
Melbourne
Nothing Else Matters
Sad But True
One
Enter Sandman
Hit The Lights
Seek and Destroy

Death Magnetic Tour: November 9 2008

met2008

Whew! After 4 longs years I finally got to see them again. Though the guys look a bit older, they can still blow the place up. Kirk just plays the hell out of that guitar. My buddy's wife was 8 1/2 months pregnant and I thought for sure the baby would be popped out by the sound of his playing. I was a bit sad I didn't score a guitar pick or one of the Death Magnetic beach balls they dropped from the ceiling, but the show was great.

Set List
That Was Just Your Life
The End of the Line
Creeping Death
Ride The Lightning
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
Wherever I May Roam
Leper Messiah
Kirk Solo #1
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Battery
Kirk Solo #2
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Die Die My Darling
Jump in the Fire
Seek and Destroy

Concert Review

Wow. 8 shows over 12 years. I've attended four with my wife, five with my Dad, and all eight with one of my best friends. Whenever the Boys in Black tour again, you can bet your ass we'll be there.

Monday, November 3, 2008

13. Become educated on presidential candidates and their stands

John Stuart Mill was a proponent of an educational qualification for voting. While I admit that such a qualification would almost certainly be used for nefarious purposes (Jim Crow laws for example), seeing things like this give me pause:



Regardless, I felt it was my personal duty to learn about the candidates I would need to choose from on November 4th. And though I lean liberal on the majority of issues I firmly believe in keeping an open mind and not clinging to misguided beliefs in the face of insurmountable evidence to the contrary. So, in order to come to a decision about who to vote for I did the following things:

1.)Subscribed to the New Yorker Campaign Trail Podcast. Obviously this was a very liberal POV coming from the New Yorker whose editors endorsed Obama.

2.)Read frequent "World Watch" columns by Orson Scott Card at The Ornery American. An example can be found here. OSC is a pretty socially conservative dude and as a person who is one of my favorite authors, was someone I felt could provide me with a conservative viewpoint that might be more palatable to me. Unfortunately it wasn't. OSC leans towards paranoia in his columns and ventures into the realm of hypocrisy on many occasions.

3.)Watched the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Highlights included Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer's speech,



Ted Kennedy's appearance, Mick Huckabee's comedy act, and Sarah Palin's speech which led to this great image:



4.)I read Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father and John McCain's Faith of My Fathers.

5.)I took a ride on the Straight Talk Express,
mcCain
when McCain came to town.

PDR_2133

I even shook his hand

PDR_2135

6.)I went and saw Barack Obama when he came to town.

IMG_0473

I shook his hand as well

IMG_0491

7.)I watched all 3 Presidential debates and the VP debate

8.)I visited the best polling site on the web fivethirtyeight.com daily

9.)And I enjoyed all the laughs, from The Daily Show



to Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, to Obama Girl.



So as I make my way to the polls tomorrow, I will feel very confident as I vote to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Though I believe that John McCain is a good man and a true American hero, I have come to believe that he and I differ on many significant issues and picking someone like Sarah Palin as his VP has shown me that he wants to get elected more than he cares about the future of this country. I believe that Barack Obama will be the best person to move us forward from the past eight years and I look forward to affordable health care for my family (which I don't have now), a Supreme Court that isn't controlled by conservatives, and having someone who I believe has a keen understanding of the domestic and foreign policy issues that face America in the White House.

I hope you will vote for Barack Obama tomorrow. However, more than that, I hope that you came to that conclusion by educating yourself. If you plan on voting becoming educated is your duty and if you haven't I hope that you will sit this one out.